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Protesters in Moscow oppose Kuril islands handover to Japan
In Moscow there has been a series of solitary protests against the possibility of Russia handing over the Kuril islands to Japan, Radio Liberty reports.
Activists reportedly took to the streets with banners outside the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Duma, and the Border Guard Academy.
According to Sergey Ponomarev, a member of the “Russian Kurils” movement, the protesters are “concerned about Russia’s territorial integrity”. They do not approve of Russia beginning the peace …
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Czech Republic is unhappy with Ukraine's law recognizing OUN and UPA veterans as fighters for independence
The President of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman "publicly called on Prague to officially protest against the glorification of Ukraine's war criminals,” his representative Jiří Ovčáček wrote on Twitter, Radio Svoboda reports. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, particularly its head, Tomáš Petříček ‘fearfully keeps silent’ regarding the glorification of Bandera’s followers in Ukraine,” the statement said.
Petříček responded to Ovčáček’s statement by saying he would discuss …
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Russia arrests US citizen on charges of espionage
Russia announced on Monday that its intelligence agency had arrested a US citizen in Moscow on suspicion of espionage.
According to the FSB, the American was arrested on Friday “while carrying out spying activity”.
Charges have been brought against him according to article 276 of Russia’s Criminal Code (Espionage), which envisages a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The suspect was identified as Paul Whelan, but no other details were provided.
The US later asked to be granted consular …
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Russia threatens to retaliate if US deploys missiles in Europe
Russia will respond if the US deploys nuclear missiles which are prohibited by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in Europe, warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as reported by Interfax.
Lavrov said he “regrets European countries’ refusal to support the preservation of the treaty”.
“Our European colleagues… are not yet ready and follow the US even in cases where it clearly goes against their own interests,” he remarked.
“All of the EU voted against our proposal [ …
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President of Belarus Lukashenko congratulates Putin on the successful union of the two nations
In his New Year’s greeting to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that the union between the two nations has been successful, the press service of the Belarusian leader reported.
Lukashenko noted that in the upcoming year, the two countries will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of signing the agreement on establishing the State Union. According to him, Belarus and Russia have had an uneasy path “but we can now say with confidence that the …